Dear All!
===========ALERT=========LONG POST============
i want to share my landing experience in toronto after getting COPR, so that it can be helfpul for others. Mainly, it was a smooth sailing. Prior to landing , i was very tense, because i was doing landing for only a week, so i was apprehensive that due to short landing, may not they process my PR delivery. However, there was no such problem.
there were mainly five steps
1) fill-in declaration card given to you on plane and declare money if you are bringing more than 10 ks CAD,......or.....do data entry in KIOSK terminals on
landing before passport control section
2) show passport and KIOSK printed slip to passport control officer and say i am new immigrant.
3) they will send you to other immigration section, where you have to show your COPR, possibly answer few questions, provide your PR delivery address,
show proof of funds ..
4) from there you have to come out and collect your luggage
5) after collecting luggage, you have to go to customs, if you have any list of goods to follow with you....if you have brought more than 10000 CAD, then
you have to take a signed/stamped receipt/copy from there as well, which will be needed by the bank once you go to bank for account opening.
--================================i will explain this process in detail in following paragraphs=============================================
1)
The declaration form the ariline gives you which you have to fill in the plane, and keep it with you. However, in toronto airport, now they have started mandatory
KIOSK slips system, so after landing , first of all you encounter kiosk terminals in corridors, or in front of passport control, where there is usually a staff to direct you towards the KIOSK. however, they don't help much in data entry. KIOSK interface is simple. you have to select your country from where you are coming, airline and the flight number,
and then, the important part, you have to scan the passport, so place your passport upside down, and place it on the scanner, such that the bio page of your passport is
on the scanner and touches the inside (stem) body of the KIOSK, once that scanning is completed, screen will give notification to see towards the camera above the screen, you have to take out glasses (if any), once picture is shot, and visible on the screen, you are ok to proceed to next screen. on the next screens, questions are similar to as asked on the declaration form, so if you have filled that card, it will be easy to select the relevant options, and proceed to the finish page. once you click finish,
you are given a printed slip from the kiosk, which you have to collect and proceed towards the passport control alongiwth your passport. Declaration card is never asked,
only passport and printed KIOSK slip now .
On the declaration form, there were only three options previously for category, "business", "personal", "student", so if you are immigrant, you had to fill "personal" on that form. also, you have to spectify your intended no. of days stay over there. so if you are doing soft landing (and if have a return ticket like me), you have to specify no. of days over there, thats why i was nervous, and thinking that may not be my PR delivery by mail procedure may initiate if they knew that i am returning by next week.
however, new kiosk software made my entry easy, as there was a new category was also there i.e. "immigrant" alongwith "business", "personal" and "student". also, there was no asking of intended no. of days over there in the KIOSK interface/software.......................so unless specifically asked, i was never going to mention my brief stay over there............
i had also mentioned on kiosk that i am bringing more than 10000 CAD to the country.
2)
then i proceeded to passport control alongiwth my passport and KIOSK printed slip, and said that i am new immigrant. then sent me to the other
immigration section.
3)
over here, there was no queue, however you have to stand on the start of the queue, unless any officer from the hall asks you to come forward towards his cabin,
he seen my COPR, accessed his system and verified, no question was asked about proof of payment. however he asked that on my COPR, my initial destination
was BC, Vancour, then why i am landing to toronto..............in reply i said that i did some digging and did more research and came to know that toronto is relatively cheaper and has more job basket than vancour, hence.........in the menatime, he signed and stamped my COPR and recorded palce of landing and date of landing. and said to me, your research is wrong, both vancour and toronto are equally expensive cities. i got impressed and said ok....i see.
(for record, i was a FSW category immigrant)
i had already given printed page of my PR delivery address of my friend in canada straightaway alongwith COPR, so that he may feel over-whelmed and mayn't ask any question about my soft landing..........he recorded that address........and said welcome to canada.......and directed me towards exit.
4) from there i exited and collected my baggage.
5) after collecting baggage, on the intersection of corridors, there was a staff member checking printed KIOSK slip of every person, and he directed me to the customs
office, while some other travellers with other data mentioned in their kiosk printed slip were free to go outside. in the customs office, i presented my goods to follow list, he checked each page, signed and stamped, and asked specifically, if there are any jewellary items or expensive watches in the list, to which i said NO. i requested him that i want a receipt/copy of money declaration that i have brought more than 10 K CAD, as someone on this forum previously said that it will be needed by bank while opening the account.
he then asked specifically that whether i have brought that money in cash or demand draft format. i said NO, i have 3 ks in cash and rest is loaded in my international enabled ATM debit card, to that he said that no money declaration form is needed, and bank will never ask for such form, and you will have no problem in bank acct opening. After that he directed me to the exit way, and here i was, in the international arrival lounge of Pearson International Airport, Toronto.
Although, i was initially in doubt that whether i have to fill in the declaration form given in plane or in KIOSK entry, that i am bringing more than 10 KS CAD. But, anyhow, i decided to go with the YES option over there, as the presence of NO, in that section might ring alarm bells in the minds of migration officer encountered on step 3, and he may ask for proof of funds (which i would have shown if asked, by providing bank statments of my local country bank for last 4 months drawn 3 days earlier + cash + ATM debit card and physically showing balance in my acct through banking app in my android set). however they never asked for proof of payment.
i hope that this information will be fruitful for people doing their first lanidng in the coming months.
Cheers